1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates to a method and apparatus for a medical image display, and more particularly, to a cardiac ultrasound image display to analyze a heart wall motion, and a method and apparatus for displaying a cardiac ultrasound image.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the ultrasound image display field, displaying a tissue deformation characteristic such as strain and a strain rate of a local portion of a target object provides a direct and quantitative measurement standard about the ability of a muscle that strains and relaxes.
In particular, displaying a real-time strain rate of a muscle as an image may be applied in cardiology. Analyzing a tissue deformation characteristic such as strain and a strain rate of a heart muscle is referred to as a strain and strain rate analysis. Although a healthy heart does not have a movement disorder at a local portion, that is, a segment, a heart suffering from a heart disease shows a difference in a strain movement between segments of a heart wall, particularly a difference in strain timing. Thus, whether the segments of a heart wall move simultaneously is one of the important factors to diagnose a cardiac disease.
According to a conventional technology, a degree of strain of a segment is indicated by colors on a 2D mode image of a heart to analyze a heart wall motion. However, when the degree of strain of each segment of a heart wall is indicated by colors on a 2D image as in the conventional technology, strain timing between segments of a heart wall may not be accurately identified. Accordingly, in addition to the 2D image corresponding to a heart, separate medical examination material needs to also be checked, which is inconvenient. For example, a time-strain graph needs to be inconveniently obtained and referred to, aside from the 2D image, to check a peak time point of each segment, i.e., an accurate time point when a segment strains most and a temporal difference in peak time points between the segments. These are important determination standards for a heart wall motion analysis.